How much creatine, if I may ask?

There’s been some studies for 20g per day to help with chronic migraine. (0)

40g/220lbs, 0.4g/kg. Prevention of traumatic headache, dizziness and fatigue with creatine administration. (1)

Similarly, a review of 6 studies found that doses of 5–20 gram of the compound may improve short-term memory and intelligence in healthy people. (2)

0. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/03331024209310...

1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2583396/

2. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29704637/

Be sure to check the timeframes involved. Creatine is a naturally produced in your body, and you also get some from diet. Your body reaches saturation at a rate that varies by person. Some people will see near to 0 benefit from creatine as their body is already producing a near maximal amount of it. But even for those with low creatine levels, a brief loading phase (of ~25g a day for a week) and then 5g a day maintenance will generally see them at peak levels.

There's probably minimal risk of meaningful damage going overboard for a healthy person, but large doses can cause stomach issues for some people, and it seems unlikely to provide benefit beyond going beyond complete saturation. It looks like, of the studies you showed, the only one where they went for a large dosing for a long period of time was when experimenting with it on children with traumatic brain injuries. That's probably because the risk:reward skewed heavily towards reward there.

The 0 one is a meta study. It goes deeper into Huntington's 30g, Parkinson’s, elderly with cognitive decline, and supplementing for help with memory related tasks. I didn’t dive deep into all either because I saw what applied to me and decided to see the results.

I think dividing the dosages throughout the day would help offset the stomach issues some and there have been 5 year long studies showing creatine doesn’t have any major risks with 5-7% people experiencing GI issues during loading phases.

https://www.bodybuilding.com/content/6-side-effects-of-creat...

You don't need more than 3-5g per day (about 15mg per pound of body-weight) to see the maximal effects. There is a loading period where you take 2-4 weeks to saturate, many take an increased dose to get there faster but if you're going to be doing this consistently, after a month of daily usage 3-5g is all you need.

Somewhere between 3-5 grams.

*[Notice: diarrhea warning]*

For those that don't know, if you aren't used to creatine then taking more than a few grams has a good possibility of giving you the shits (or sometimes even strong abdominal discomfort). This will (mostly) go away fairly quickly and varies drastically from person to person, but you've been warned. Best to take it on a weekend or something, and slowly build up to your max dose.

The effect is pronounced if taken with only water, all at once.

Instead you can take it throughout the day be adding it to your water bottle. Taking it with meals also typically subdues the effect.

The effect I suppose is comparable to something like magnesium citrate. I suspect they are doing similar things osmotically.

I take 3 grams in juice on an empty stomach and have never had any problems. Maybe the juice is key.

I usually take it with just water on a empty stomach and never had any issue.

Does it taste good?

Yeah, the almonds, cinnamon, and vanilla in the protein powder really even out all the weird stuff.

What’s the point of eating collagen when you’re already eating protein powder? Why do you think your gut would process it differently from any other protein?

Collagen is made out of mainly 3 amino acids:(hydroxy)proline, lysine, and glycine. So in theory collagen powder is giving you very high levels of those specific amino acids which would help promote collagen formation. I can’t say I’m familiar with the literature and if there is any data behind that - but thats your reason

I've tried collagen powder before, because it's very easy to take since it easily dissolves in drinks (and I think actually improves them), and I think it made my hair and nails grow faster but didn't do much else.

Just eat some pork rinds/chicarones. Cheap and delicious fat collagen rich bites. They get a bad rap but are quite healthy if mimimally processed.

I’m always on the lookout for chícharones cooked in a healthy fat, but I’ve never found them cooked in anything but vegetable oils.

As mentioned by the other buy, something like whey powder or meat will have a very different amino acid profile compared to collagen. Like fatty acids and carbohydrates, amino acids get lumped together as a group, but they all have very different effects in the body (including competition).

Most people don't need to care, but amino acid balance can sometimes be a significant factor to health issues because of all the interactions involved, especially if intake has been tilted by a particular way of eating. It's reasonable to balance out whey protein with collagen.

Honestly the topic is so convoluted that with my current grasp of if, I can't currently make a useful or broadly applicable statement beyond "some people find collagen or glycine supplementation beneficial for their X". Individual trial and error basically, much like neurotransmitter affecting medication.

I hope you use Ceylon Cinnamon.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coumarin